CODE GEASS: The Puppet Master (AU)
by xDreamfyre
Summary: Set during the beginning of R2, after Lelouch regains his memories by C.C. Though Cornelia's encounter with V.V comes before then, and she seeks to avenge her sister, Euphemia, and clear her name by destroying the source of the code and its order. While Lelouch continues his path of destruction, he and the other Ashford Academy students are introduced to a Valarie Bane (OC).
1. TURN I: An Introduction

-TURN I: AN INTRODUCTION-

"They say they're going to kill God." General Bartley stated by her side. The words sounded strange coming from his lips, as though he had spoken to her in a foreign language where the words made no sense to her whatsoever. She looked towards the general. He looked very much the same, yet there was a confusion streaked across his face, to somewhat match her own, and Cornelia could not help but ask, _"____God?__"_ in response.

Bartley nodded his head to her. "I thought they were just speaking metaphorically, but now, at the very least these people believe what they're saying."

"Ridiculous. To believe in God; there's no such being."

"That's right." It had been a voice Cornelia had never heard before, and she turned to see its bearer the moment the words had been spoken. ___A child_, she thought, staring into the face of youth. "Glowing goddesses and long bearded old men in white with kingdoms in the clouds…" Her hand twitched, towards the sheath. "No, not that kind of god." Cornelia pulled out her dagger and aimed for the child's head. Between his eyes the blade pierced. His body fell back, limp and lifeless; his head thudded against the floor like a rock.

"Princess Cornelia!" Now, there was not only the confusion on Bartley's face she had first seen, but also a shock that narrowed very close to fear.

"Who knows what kind of geass he controls?" the second princess simply said. "You must never let your guard down, even for a child."

"Yes. That's correct." Cornelia turned once more. The child's crimson eyes glowed as bright as the thick red blood that poured from his wound as curled his fingers around the hilt of the blade and pulled it out. Red trickled down his face like red tears. ___How could he still live?_ The thoughts filled Cornelia's mind. She watched his smile stretch across his face, reaching his eyes, and she felt… Fear?___A child…_"Cornelia, you do live up to your reputation, don't you?" he continued with a giggle. "As your uncle, I am very proud of you."

"My—___what_?"

"We made a solemn vow: if there was ever a god that made men fight each other, we'd kill him and his divine rule."

"There is no god, it is only men that make men fight each other." The child merely laughed again; the sound made Cornelia uncomfortable. "Or perhaps there is a god," she continued, ignoring such laughter. "The kind that created such the curse of Geass. Well, are you going to kill me? Or control me with your geass"—she clenched her fists—"like you did to Euphie."

"To prove your sister's innocence, you renounced your position, gave up everything. That's inspiring." His words shocked Cornelia. She had never expected such words to come from such a being, for she believed, or at least rather assumed a man, or even child, of geass were not people of kind words. She listened to him, though the mention of her little sister again would pain her more than she could perhaps handle.

"You made me think, Cornelia: Is there any more splendid relationship in this entire world than that of loyal siblings?"

"How can such a creature like you speak of loyalty, you are, are you not, a man of geass?"

He giggled again. It didn't seem that the former second princess was the only one to be disturbed by this child before them, for she felt Bartley shift backwards behind her as though distance could protect him.

"Not exactly," he said with a smile. "But I am the leader of this Geass Order you seek to destroy. I create geass users from all around the world, everyday. Would you like to meet them?" His head cocked to the side; his smile turned from sweet, like that of the child he seemed to be, to dark.

"Princess…" Bartley whimpered to her. His eyes were filled with fear as he saw what she saw. The hall, it became full of dozens of small children. Each of them held their left hand to their faces, covering their left eyes. Their smiles mirrored that of their masters, though there was one difference. When they all simultaneously removed their hands from their faces, red irises glowed beneath.

"Geass…" Cornelia managed a murmur. "Why would you do this?! Why would you create this curse?!"

Her uncle simply gazed at her. Cornelia felt that his eyes did not merely look at her, but _into_ her. "We made a solemn vow," he repeated his own words. "If there was ever a god that made men fight each other, we'd kill him. And you, Cornelia li Britannia, my dear nephew whose sister means more to her than her own name, you will be my next test subject."

* * *

Susaku knew only that he was dreaming, that he dreamt of a world unlike reality. This world, it seemed sweet. There was no war and no death, no fighting; the scent of blood that had stained the air had faded; the sound of gunfire and knightmare frames colliding in combat laid only in his imagination, and for that Suzaku Kururugi, the Knight of Seven, was grateful. He looked about him. Everything around him bore the colour red, but the red of flowers and not the red of blood.___Poppies_, the knight thought. And then he heard a voice, _her_ voice. Her laugh. Suzaku turned to the direction her voice had come from, but he could not see her. She laughed again, and he turned again. He wanted to see her, desperately, yet she seemed out of reach, as she seemed to always have been.

___I can't see you__,_ Kururugi thought only to himself.___I can't reach you__,_ the voice in his mind continued. Though, those words slowly changed into a thought that was: ___I couldn't reach you._

"Suzaku," he heard her say from behind him. Her voice was soft and clear; it called to him like the voice of a siren. For a moment, Suzaku seemed hesitant to turn out of fear she would somehow disappear again into the blooms of this field of poppies. But when he finally did, he saw her indigo eyes, the same she shared with her sister, he saw her pale lips and skin, her long flowing hair he remembered being a soft as silk. "Suzaku," she said again, smiling.

___Euphie._

The princess was dressed all in white. Her pink hair tumbled over her shoulders, untied and freed. Her smile grew bigger as she held Suzaku's hands in her own. She laughed. "Isn't it so beautiful, Suzaku?" She drew from him for a mere moment to twirl through the red blossoms of his dream. "Isn't it wonderful? I want everywhere to be as beautiful as this place, to turn back to their mother of nature, and away from their goddesses of war." She said the words as she danced. All the while, Suzaku's eyes remained fixated on her. Yet the longer he watched her, the more blurred his sight of her became. It was then, the Knight of Seven realised the tears in his eyes as he cried.

Euphemia ran to him then, cupping her knight's face with her palms. She wiped away his tears with her long white fingers. Suzaku looked at her; she wore the same worried look on her face as she'd always worn in his memories whenever something upset him. "Are you alright?" he heard those memories of her speak to him, but instead his princess said again, "Isn't this beautiful?"

He looked at Euphie again. "Yes," Her smile reappeared, gracing her divine features. "Yes!" she exclaimed, jumping. "I want you to dance with me, Suzaku!" She grabbed his hands they twirled together. "Dance with me!" her voice shouted with joy. And he did. He spun her around, and they danced. He spun her into his embrace, and then out. But then Euphie tore her fingers from Suzaku's hold and she drew away from him, further and further. "Euphie," Kururugi murmured. "What's wrong?"

The third princess took one more step from Suzaku. She looked at him, as he did her, but he saw no life in her eyes. Her indigo irises stilled, no longer glistening, and they lost their lustre. "What's wrong," he wanted to ask again, though Euphemia spoke first. "Suzaku," she whispered. Her voice was different. "You're Japanese, aren't you?" Suzaku's eyes widened, and he the memories of that day flooded his mind. He ran for her, but the more he ran, the more her body got further and further away from him. "You're Japanese," she repeated, holding her right hand out forward as if she held a gun in her palm. The gunshot sounded, but it had never been from Euphie's gun. ___Never__. _

"ZERO!" Suzaku screamed unconditionally. He tried harder to reach her, his princess, his love, but she began falling, her white dress reddening. A darkness was growing beneath her, like a hole, and Euhpemia's body finally fell into the abyss. Suzaku jumped in after her, and he followed her into darkness.

"Did it go alright?" It was Euphemia's voice again. Suddenly they were both back on Lloyd's ship, her body laid within white sheets. Though, it was as though Suzaku's spirit was not within his body, as he watched another version of himself sat by Euphie's bedside, from afar. "The ceremony? Is Japan okay? How about everyone that was there? Are the Japanese happy?"

"Euphie," Suzaku heard the version of him sat by his princess say. He could not change the words he said, for this was a memory, and he could not change the past no matter how many times he wished it. "The Special Administrated Zone… It was a success." He was beginning to cry, both versions of him, for this part of him knew what would come next.

"STOP IT!" Suzaku cried from a distance, covering his ears and shutting his eyes. He could tolerate no more, he ___would_ tolerate no more. "WAKE UP!"

"How strange," he knew she'd say. "I can't see your face anymore." She held out her hand.

"STOP IT!" And he woke. The strange thing had always been the fact that he could not truly remember his princess' death, only the sound of the heart monitor going flat. He could not remember anything she had said to him after his own words. The memory was blurry, and his head ached whenever he tried to recall those events._ I didn't say goodbye_, he told himself, miserably, or at least, he didn't remember saying it.

This had been the seconds time he dreamed of his princess this week. Suzaku was beginning to attend school again, yet he wasn't enjoying it. He would always dream of Euphie in a white dress and in a field of red poppies. He laughed when he realised the irony of it all; poppies were grown in remembrance of the dead, each one of them stood for a lost soul. And Euphemia danced within those blossoms, almost merging herself with them for she was, too, a lost soul.

"Sazaku!" Shirley said, hitting him lightly on the head with a rolled-up newspaper. "You're sleeping in class, again? You're starting to end up like Lulu!" Shirley wore a light expression on her face, though her words were rather serious. "You're the Knight of Seven now—"

"Exactly," Suzaku laughed, ignoring Shirley's mention of Lelouch. "I have so many duties now, so I never really have the time for sleep. At least, except for when I'm in school apparently." He smiled at his friend. She opened her mouth to say something in reply, but before she could have the chance to speak, Professor Jenkins spoke up first. "Now I'd like to introduce to you a new member of our Ashford Academy, a transfer student. Please come in, Miss Bane." A small, thin girl took her place by the professor's side. She had a very pretty face, with long white-blonde hair that reached the bottom of her back. "Hello," was all she simply said, her voice similar to Anya's, Suzaku thought. The girl looked around the room, meeting everyone's gaze, before she let her gaze stop at Suzaku. Her eyes were of the deepest blue, like sapphires.

___Those eyes_, Suzaku's mind suddenly spoke.___I have seen them before…____But where? Where?_And then it all came to him in flashes, bits of fragmented memories. ___The girl…_An image of her flashed in his head, an image of her dressed in a white military uniform, being stood over a pale body. ___She was there…_Suzaku Kururugi looked into the girl's sapphire eyes. He could make out no more from the flashing images in his head, just that she was there that day, that moment, the moment when Euphie, his princess had died.

"My name is Valerie Bane." Miss Bane told everyone, though her eyes remained on Suzaku. "I will be attending here from this day forth, and I hope to get to know all of you." That was all she said before she took a place in between Rolo and Milly, and the Knight of Seven was left thinking: ___who is this girl, and what does she have to do with Euphie's death?_


	2. TURN II: That Is A Promise

-TURN II: THAT IS A PROMISE-

_To kill Zero if ever he is reawakened, that is your task. That is your promise._

* * *

"You really have awakened." Rolo simply said, looking into those purple eyes, the eyes that belonged to the boy he had called brother for all these last months, Lelouch Lamperouge. Zero. As he stood staring, the barrel of the gun pointed directly to his soft temple, Rolo noticed a flicker in those irises; there was a darkness within them as well as a pleasure, for victory seemed sweet for the moments in which you attained it. Though it was a while before Lelouch replied to Rolo; he began with his laughter. "I put the man who was following me under my absolute control and turned him into my slave," he said. "Just as I thought, your top priority was the capture of C.C. No matter how wrong the information is that you get." At this, Lelouch laughs again. "As of this moment this gilded prison of a school will become my castle, my fortress of freedom. And as for you, _dear brother_..." He said the words as though he loathed them, as though he had been almost incapable of speaking of such words. "...I'll make you my pawn to find Nunnally." Lelouch's words stopped there. He pulled the contact from his left eye and revealed his eye of geass. _His demon eye, _Rolo thought.

Yet, it had been Rolo himself who used his coded gift. The assassin smiled, as he loosened his _brother's _grip on his gun, pulling apart each of his long white fingers one by one from the hold they had on the weapon. When he released his geass, Rolo held the gun to Lelouch's head instead. "Geass?" the prince exclaimed. "You stopped time?" But Rolo merely ignored his questions. He pushed the barrel closer to Lelouch's head until it was buried within the black strands of the prince's hair. "Lelouch," he said his brother's name. "now you and your demonic eye will die." His fingers fell into place, three locked about the gun itself, and one placed before the trigger. _I will kill you, _he thought to himself as he let his mind forget it all, the memories he had of their time together. _I will pull this trigger as I have done a thousand times before this..._ Rolo was ready—to kill Zero. His finger shifted...

"Your geass is the ability to stop time?" Lelouch's voice knocked Rolo out of his focus.

"I have no reason to answer you." the assassin said bitterly in response. "The orders given to me are as follows: if Lelouch Lamperouge's memories return, if zero is awakened, then he is to die." _You are to die, that is my task, my promise...Valerie. _"A promise is a promise, Rolo." It was her voice Rolo heard in his mind now, as he continued to hold his brother at gunpoint. He remembered that night as though it had been yesterday, and he remembered her words, too.

They had stood in the dark confines of basement of the academy, yet even from that distance, Rolo had seemed to see her skin glow, white and perfect, as though she had been an angel. _A fallen angel,_ Rolo thought now. She had gazed at him with her eyes that were like sapphires, crystals that seemed to have been born from the sea, and even by her stare had Rolo unravelled. "Remember your place, Assassin, your promise to the Order." he remembered her say to him in the darkness. "Your promise to me. Capture C.C. Draw her out by using the prince as bait. But should he regain his memories, should C.C get to him before we are able to take her, kill him. That is your task..." ..._my promise..._

"...sixteen, seventeen, eighteen..." Those were the only words Lelouch spoke, and they forced Rolo into a state of raging confusion. "What are you doing?" he asked, but Lelouch kept on counting. "Why are you counting?!"

"Since the moment you appeared, I've been counting the seconds to myself carefully one by one. But now the count I out of sync." Lelouch said. He stretched one arm forward, revealing in his palm a remote. He pressed, playing the video tape recording of Rolo stopping his perception of time and taking the gun from his grasp. "You can't stop time." the prince continued. "No one can. You've just altered my sense of time." Lelouch turned his head against the barrel to face Rolo; there was that gleam of satisfaction in his eyes again, that satisfaction that was the mere humane response to the sense of victory. "You'd like to kill me now, wouldn't you?" he spoke. "But you can't. We both know the reason why. If I die, you won't gain either of the two things that you want."

"Two things?" Rolo asked.

"First, you won't get C.C for whom I've been the bait in your hunt." Lelouch's smile grew. "But if you let me go I can draw her out for you. I'll help you get her."

"That is my mission, to get her."

"Kill me, and your mission will never be complete. Tomorrow, i'll lure C.C out and she can be all yours. Once that's done your new future will begin, and that's the second thing you want, isn't it? _A new future._ Dont worry, I would never lie to you. Not to you anyway." But unknowingly to Rolo, all that Lelouch had said, all that he had spoke of, were nothing but the lies he swore never to tell.

* * *

"Lord Guilford," the voice over the open channel spoke, forcing Gilbert from his daydream. _Is it time, already? _his thoughts asked. Today had been a silent day to say the least, or at least things had been silent for him, the proud knight of honour and of Cornelia. Yes, he still considered himself Princess Cornelia's knight; even after all the months she had been deemed missing, he remained with her, if not in physicality then by his vows. _Lord Gilbert G.P Guilford,_ it was _her _voice now he heard in his mind, his princess', and the memory of that day played vividly alongside, as though it had been only moments ago he had been knighted. _Will thou upon this day pledge thy fealty to Britannia and stand as a knight of the crown?_ she had said in a flowing gown of red as he'd knelt before her. _Yes, Your Highness, _that had what Guilford had answered. The words were as though written in a script; every knight said them as they were knighted, yet the words had meant more to him.

_Does thou wish to abandon thy self and be sword and shield for the sake of the greater good? _the second princess' voice still sounded in his head. _Yes, Your Highness. _And he remembered her final words to him that day, when he had unsheathed his silver blade and held its hilt before her, _I, Cornelia li Britannia, hereby dub thee Lord Gilbert Guilford from this day as my knight and my sword... _"Yes, Your Highness." Guilford said once more, this time, aloud.

The knight leaned forward into position. His Gloucester was centred between his Glaston knights, Alfred, Bart, Edgar and Claudio. David held his position up upon the roof of the military base, his missile launcher pointed directly to the targets. Guilford listened for any open channel, though neither of his knights said a word. It was time. "Elevens," he began, stating this to all those who had come to face the execution of the Black Knights. "The Zero you have believed in has not appeared. It has all been a deception. I challenged him to a fair and honest duel and he has sculpted away like a coward." The Elevens began screaming, chanting the name, "Zero!" and throwing fists into the air. They had hoped for him to return, to save his comrades. But he hadn't. For that, even Lord Guilford had been disappointed, though he finally took the command. "Take aim!"

The Sutherlands around the knights' Gloucesters took their aim and...

"You're mistaken!" It was a voice Gilbert had thought not to hear now, after the long wait, the voice of the so-called "miracle-maker". "You're wrong, Guilford." The knight turned left from right from within his knightmare in search for him, Zero, the man's whose voice he could hear now. Yet, he saw no figure before him; the long black cape that fitted around a slender bodice, the dark suit beneath it, the black mask that had become no less than a symbol of salvation and liberation to the Elevens; Guilford saw none of it. And then, it had occurred to him. _If you are not in front of me..._ the knight of Cornelia thought quickly. _Then... _"I see," he shouted. "You snook up behind me. Zero!"

The figure by this name was stood atop a simple Sutherland, the hatch of it wide open. It looked ruined and old, but the air grew silent nonetheless, every man waiting for the masked man's next move. "Guilford," The knight's name sounded odd from his lips. There was a bitterness to the tone of his voice, an anger that had always been held when speaking to the Britannians. "Those are not terrorists you are executing," Zero continued, staring directly at Gilbert's Gloucester. "They're the black knights, soldiers of the army of the United States of Japan!"

"You expect me to recognise your men as prisoners of war?" To that, Guilford received no reply. Their conversation had sunken dry into the silence, and the knight watched intently as Zero came forth, strolling through upon his fourth generation knightmare. To Guilford's previous question, Zero had said not one word, yet now he spoke once more, with a mocking tone. "Guilford, it has been a long time. Why don't you come out and we can talk about the good old days."

This time, it was Gilbert who had turned silent. His anger burned from inside his chest. It was as though his heart had been set afire, a blaze born from his rage. _This...? This is what injured Princess Cornelia? _His thoughts were bitter. The memories came to him then; the pool of blood that was said to belong to the princess, red and thick, it's content far too large; the remains of her destroyed Gloucester, its robotic limbs severed and broken as though they had been twigs; and the report of that very Gloucester of having been in battle with The Gawain, the black knightmare Zero had piloted that night. Guilford pushed the memories away, gritting his teeth and tightening his grip on the control of his knightmare. "Tempting as that invitation is," was what he said, "I'll stay where I am. We'll just settle our past grudges from the inside of our knightmares."

Zero laughed. He was beginning to step into his Sutherland as he spoke. "How predictable of you," he said. Guilford could not see his face, though he could feel the smirk appearing beneath that mask. "Very well then, let's set some rules, the rules of our duel. We'll settle this, you and I, one on one."

Gilbert couldn't help but smile himself. "Very well. No one else will interfere with our combat." _This will be it, my princess Cornelia. The day I avenge you. After Zero is done, that is when I can leave Area 11, and search for you. "_Will thou upon this day pledge thy fealty to Britannia and stand as a knight of the crown?" Those had been her words to him that day.

_Yes, Your Highness, _that was Guilford's thought.

"We will each have one weapon," the masked man stated. Guilford chose his most favoured weapon among those that accompanied his Gloucester, his golden great lance. It was the lance he had used to defend the second princess, and it would be the same lance he would use to also defend her name. "Does thou wish to abandon thy self and be sword and shield for the sake of the greater good?" she had said. _Yes, Your Highness, _he answered again.

It was Zero's choice that confused him and everyone around him. "I shall borrow that shield," he said, pointing the arm of his Sutherland to a simple riot shield held by one of the extra men handed to Guilford for this mission. _What is the meaning of this? _The knight wanted to ask. _Even a man of miracles cannot defeat a Gloucester with one mere shield. _His thoughts were interrupted by his next question: "What do you do when there is an evil you cannot defeat by just means? Do you stain your hands with evil to destroy evil, or do you remain steadfastly just and righteous even if it means surrendering to evil?"

"In the name of Cornelia"—he remembered Cornelia's smile as she had looked down to him, bringing her sword to touch each of his shoulders—"I choose justice!" Her words rang through his mind at that moment. "I, Cornelia li Britannia, hereby dub thee Lord Gilbert Guilford from this day as my knight and my sword." she had said. "_Yes!" _Guilford roared. "_For Her Highness!" _And his knightmare lunged.

* * *

"ZERO! ZERO! ZERO!" the Black Knights began chanting as loud as they could, chanting the very name of the man that had saved them today. They were to be executed before the Japanese that were now dubbed "eleven" and before the very Britannians that had captured them. But freeing them had been fairly easy, Lelouch recalled. He had used the very tactic he had used those months ago against Cornelia, during the Black Rebellion, where the architecture of his surroundings tumbled and folded like dominoes, crushing his enemies and forcing them into distress. Now, the forces that remained within Japan were weakened, already two of Cornelia's own royal guard dead. There was only Guilford left, now that Calares was taken care of. Lelouch, or more so Zero, would indeed have to dispose of him soon.

He looked into the crowd. He searched through the faces, all graced with a happiness and relief he had brought to them. His eyes stopped on Kallen's face, his Ace and friend; she smiled to him, and though she could not truly see his face, Lelouch returned that smile as well. He thought back their old school days, when things seemed somewhat..._simpler._ Images of Shirley and Rivals filled his mind, and perhaps Lelouch's mind would have stayed with such memories, if it not been for C.C's lingering presence behind him. The former prince could feel her gaze on him, but he waited for Tohdoh and Oghi, who had been the two of all his knights to defend him against an uproar of interrogation led by Shogo Asahina and Nagisa Chiba, to leave him before moving towards the green-haired girl.

"Quite a performance," she said. There was no smile on her face among her beautiful features—C.C very rarely ever smiled—though Lelouch saw a touch of happiness in her eyes, similar to the kind that filled his now-partying black knights. Their cheers and laughter filled the air in the distance as he walked back to his chambers with C.C. He laughed and said, "For a moment, I thought that I had lost my men to the devastating pool of suspicion."

"It is true, there as still some who suspect and mistrust you for abandoning them." she replied, looking forward. Her heals clicked against the marble ground, each echoing through the hall. "But there are undoubtedly those who have remain loyal to you, Lelouch." At this, Lelouch stopped. "Why does it seem as though there is something else you need to say to me?" he asked. For those moments before they reached Lelouch's private chambers, there remained a silence between them, as though C.C had lost the very words that had been at the tip of her tongue. But the silence was done the moment Lelouch shut the door of his chamber, and the two were both truly alone. "As you know, I can sense those gifted with the power of geass. That I sensed V.V when he captured your sister, Nunnally, should be proof of that." Lelouch was intrigued. "That pilot," the immortal began again after a moment's hesitation. "the one that was piloting the enemy unit, the Vincent. Who was he?"

"His name is Rolo," Zero simply stated.

"The boy that replaced your sister, I see." Lelouch watched as C.C contemplated the thought for a moment; he wondered just how much she knew of his so-called brother. "Kallen had you monitored during the months before you were awakened. We gathered that he was just a mere pawn, used by the OSI to watch you. It wasn't until today that I realised that he is too a man—"

"—a man of geass?" Lelouch interrupted. He smiled. "Yes, indeed. A simple pawn, first used by the OSI and Viletta Nu, and now by me. He's known no home, no family. And for that it seemed to be his only weakness, that insecurity. I promised him a future, a future with me as his brother."

"But you don't intend to honour that promise, do you?"

"Not at all. There is a future for him, though, the kind that _I _will end after I have utilised him to the full, and have taken Nunnally back." Lelouch thought of his sister now, helpless and vulnerably, forever bound within her wheelchair for the bullets that had hit and destroyed her legs, for the bullets that killed their mother. _Nunnally, _he thought only to himself. The picture in his mind of her was so real, his sister seemed so close. _I'll free you, _his mind said the words as though she was truly here, with him, the princess. _That is my promise, Sister. Wait for me. _But Lelouch felt it had never been Rolo C.C had wanted to speak of, and he as much in his next words to her.

"No," C.C confirmed quietly. "For my abilities, I was able to sense the Vincent pilot as a man of geass. But there was something else..." Her gaze reached his. "..._someone _else." Lelouch's eyes widened. "Yes," the witch said even before Lelouch could say the words. "there was someone else there today, watching us. Whoever that may be still remains a mystery to me, an identity as unknown as your face beneath the guise of Zero. The question that should worry you is: who is this person; are they an enemy or an secret ally, this man that has obtained geass?"

* * *

There was nothing but darkness here; the night seemed to consume everything. The tall trees in the distance blurred into one colour of black, their silhouettes merging together. Valerie walked the gravel path to the great manor before her. It had been built over a hundred years ago by an ancient Japanese family, yet it had been long since anyone had lived there, and their bloodline had been lost in the war eight years ago, ceasing to exist. The doors creaked opened as she pushed them before her, and she ventured further into the house. There were hardly any lights to guide her, though the steps came easily to Valerie as she had been here so many times before. It seemed as though she had known this place even before then, however.

She climbed the first set of stairs, looking at the collection of old, wading paintings hanging from the walls. She stopped to look at this one in particular, a family photo depicting a mother and a father with their three children, two girls and a boy. They looked happy in this picture, with smiles that reached their eyes. One of the girls' face had been scratched out, so Valerie could not see her smile, but she felt that the girl had been smiling in this picture. Who would not smile in a photo with all your family? She tore her gaze from the photo. The story had it that all of them had died in this very manor. Valerie wondered if their souls still lingered, as if bound, unable to go be with God.

At the top of the stairs, a grand set of doors appeared in front of her. Valerie lightly pushed them open with the palms of her hands, revealing the room from within. Out of the whole house, this room seemed to be the least touched by the years. Though the white walls had +turned grey, the dark curtains torn and dusty, there had always remained a ominous lustre to the room, a dark beauty. There were many mirrors in the room, more than there were windows. She looked into each of them, finding at the other end the reflection of herself staring back at her. She had never known the true reason behind why they were all held here, only that each became a piece of what was once the most beautiful room in the house. In here, there stood by the open balcony one chair, and in that chair sat a single person. Valerie knew their face, but they sat facing away from her.

"Back from the Chinese Federation, are we?" the person asked, turning their head slightly to the right. A shadow fell across their face as the moonlight graced their body with its silver lustre.

"Yes," that was all Valerie said. "The target was spotted, though she was surrounded by her knights."

"The Black Knights," the person said flatly. "They serve as the royal guard for Zero, and therefore C.C as well." The person turned fully to face Valerie, their eyes were filled with nothing that gave away the truth as to how they felt. It had always made Valerie wonder how such a person could bury emotions deep inside, discard them, leaving nothing of their identity but a mere robot. "What about Rolo?" they asked.

"Rolo betrayed us," Valerie stated. "He's abandoned his cause for Zero. He's failed us, breaking his promise." She waited for a response, anything to give away any kind of anger, rage that should be felt, yet the voice she heard was calm, almost melodic though constantly at one tone, and frighteningly stoic. "Continue with the mission as planned. Capture C.C, that is our priority, but get rid of Rolo, should he get in our way." They stood from the seat, a slender figure standing against the white, godly beam of the moon. "We cannot allow the alliance between Japan and the Chinese Federation to go on."

"Capture the immortal witch, dispose of the traitor, and destroy the alliance—it all seems too easy." Valerie laughed, but the humour was soon drained from the conversation between the two. "But is that an order," she asked. She needed to know this first. "Is this an order from the Master, himself?"

"Yes,"

Valerie knelt, looking to the ground. "Then, my master's wish is my command." When she looked up to the figure in the moonlight, her left eye was glowing red.

**A/N: Okay, as you can see that I have changed the timeline of the actual series-Suzaku's going back to school happened after this part of R2, but I had that changed for the purposes of making the introduction of Valerie interesting. So far there is a lot of scenes taken from the series, but I hope to move from that within the next few chapters!**

**Thank you for reading this. Please review and tell me what you think! x**


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